Chapter 18

A/N: Sorry I've been so slow with updates in general... work has been killing me a bit, even though it's summer (let's not talk about playing video games, though :P haha)

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"So I've got a few replies for people that'll be coming tomorrow from her class... just a handful. You think seven is enough?" Marc asked worriedly. With Brendan's advice, he'd invited all of Ariel's classmates. Only a few of them were coming though, and he felt guilty for it.

"It'll be fine," Whitney said for what had to be the fifth time. She picked up some of the unused invitations and turned them around in her hands. "In a year she won't even think about it."

Marc grunted and checked his e-mail one more time. Brendan was picking up the cake for it in the morning, though he'd been keeping a slight distance with Whitney back in town. It had been more of a mutual thing. He hadn't been angry really, but he'd obviously been uncomfortable with the idea of Whitney.

She'd been staying back at her parents place though, and had since passed on the word that Marc was gay to them. They seemed elated as to find out that's why things hadn't worked out. Whitney had asked about Marc's dad as well at that point, but he hadn't been able to tell her.

"You think Brendan will hate me?" Whitney asked dubiously.

"No," Marc answered, mostly sure. "I think he's just had a bad impression and he doesn't know how to face you or get to know you otherwise."

Whitney nodded and continued to play with the invitations, lingering into the evening since Ariel had already been sent to bed. Her birthday had really been the day before, but the party was for Saturday.

"So you haven't told your dad yet?" she asked again. "What if he's there tomorrow?"

Marc let out a long sigh then. "He won't be. He wasn't invited."

"To Ariel's party? But he adores Ariel..." she pointed out cautiously.

Marc ground his teeth together, trying to figure out where even to start. "He and I aren't talking anymore, and I've forbid him from seeing Ariel. Even before I started dating Brendan. Back in high school... you know, a lot of the reason I was uncomfortable in bed was one thing... but another was just showing my body. He was abusive to me growing up, and I had just gotten stuck in this cycle of him being in my life, but never trusting him with Ariel. And so finally I just told him to leave us alone."

"Abusive?" Whitney echoed, thinking over it. "I mean... shit. Now I kind of see it all I guess but—hell, I never even noticed before... I'm so sorry," she admitted stiffly.

"I did a lot to try and hide it, even from you." Marc shrugged. "But since that, he doesn't even know that I'm gay now, or that I'm dating Brendan. I could only imagine it going worse from all of that. He's tried calling a few times this week but I haven't taken any of them. Ariel understands I don't want him around, and I've told her not to be alone with him."

"But I mean... Ariel would be different, right?" Whitney asked worriedly. "He wouldn't hurt her."

"Maybe not. But as soon as she does something he doesn't agree with... you know, all kids do. Doing what you told them not too, or accidentally breaking something, who knows. That's when I'd be afraid for her," Marc explained. "I've seen it before. She was too young to remember. He told her not to touch his soda, but she was two. She wasn't going to listen. So she went for the soda, and he couldn't seem to understand why she wasn't listening to him..."

"Okay, okay," Whitney straightened up. "Got it. He's not allowed to see her." She settled back into her chair with defeat then. "I can't believe you never told me, even when we were older. I mean even that explains a lot now I think... gay aside, you were never very affectionate." She paused. "Brendan knows?"

"He was the first person I actually told," Marc admitted. "And he knows what it's like too. His... parents sent him to a lot of abusive conversion camps when he was younger. He doesn't really talk to them either."

"Ah Christ," Whitney sighed, rubbing her temples. "I can't believe stuff like that happens."

Marc only forced a smile. He could go on, of course. The tattoos covering up Brendan's scars, but it was enough of an overstep to just tell her about the camps at all. "He's really pulling me out, though. He's confident enough with himself he's dragging me up with him, I think."

"That's good," Whitney commented quickly. "And you said Ariel's getting really into art with him? That's good too, especially if he were to move in or something."

"What?" Marc snorted in surprise. "That's not even on the table yet. No. It's been maybe a month."

"I know, I know." She waved him off dismissively anyways. "But I mean, two or three years into the future, you never know." She set down the invitations then and stretched her arms up. "I should get going though. I want to pick up a few more things for tomorrow, and I want to be here early."

It wasn't really even that late yet, but Marc let her go. He paced around downstairs for a little while before picking up the phone to call Brendan. Despite the weird tension, he still answered fairly quickly.

"Did you want to come over?" Marc offered. He really didn't want tomorrow to be something too awkward between Brendan and Whitney. If he could talk to Brendan a little more beforehand, it might help.

"Uh, sure. I can bring over Ariel's present too. I just got done wrapping it. And don't be fooled, I suck at wrapping, and the paper is left over from Christmas, but you can't really tell."

Marc laughed to himself and started getting his keys and things together. "As long as it's not crumpled newspaper, she won't even notice. But you're still coming tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Brendan challenged him, almost on the defensive.

"I don't know. You've just been avoiding us some since Whitney got back earlier this week," Marc said, deciding not to try and play the subtly game.

"Well..." Brendan stopped. "I don't know. I thought maybe it was like a family thing, and then it's just kind of weird, and..." he trailed off blankly then.

"Look, I'll come pick you up, okay? You can crash here tonight if you want to, too," the words were out of Marc's mouth before he could really understand what that would mean, but then Brendan was silent for too long on the other side of the phone. "Or whatever," Marc added quickly.

"No, that's fine. Yeah, I'll grab some stuff. I'll see you soon."

Marc was glad to end the conversation then, silently berating himself. He wasn't sure what all that would even mean then. All they had really done was kiss, and Brendan was more experienced with guys. Marc wasn't sure he would be able to take the chance if it came up.

He carried a sleeping Ariel out with him to the car, and she didn't even wake up for it. Brendan kept it quiet when he saw her in the car and loaded himself in with a backpack.

Marc put Ariel back in her bed at the house, and Brendan lingered around awkwardly with his backpack. "You can put that in my room, or the guest room. Whatever." Marc gave him the option to go where he wanted.

"Your room cool?" Brendan checked, waiting on a nod before dropping it off upstairs.

"Whitney's actually been really understanding," Marc blurted nervously, just wanting to get it out of the way. "Like she's not pissed I'm gay. She thinks it makes a lot of sense now. And I told her about my dad and everything tonight, too. I think now she just feels bad for not ever realizing it when we were married."

"So she's not going to think of me as the guy that turned you or something?" Brendan chuckled unsurely.

"No. I made it clear it had always been that way for me, and that I had been trying to cover it up. Just that you're pulling me out of my shell a bit more," Marc explained. "And after I told her about my dad, I... mentioned the camps you went to, so she knows it's a lot more than just... yeah."

"Where's she staying anyways?" Brendan decided to move on from that. "here?"

"No, with her parents. She's still living in Ireland right now, but she might consider coming back to be more with Ariel. If that's okay?"

"Don't ask me if that's okay. Of course it's okay. She's Ariel's mom," Brendan rolled his eyes. "Ariel just gets three adults trying to give her attention. Lucky girl." Brendan meandered his way over, pulling Marc into a tight hug. "And sorry for being weird about things. I guess the only thing to really help is to meet her, huh?"

"Well, she'll be there tomorrow," Marc assured him. "And yeah, I get it being weird, I just don't want it to be too weird at Ariel's party, you know? She's really excited to have both of you there."

"You say that, until she opens my present. Then you won't want me there," Brendan snickered mischievously.

"What did you get her?" Marc tried not to sound too scared.

"The only real present. Scented markers. Be ready for colored noses as she tries to sniff them, and prepares herself for sniffing sharpies later on in life," Brendan teased, his breath up close on Marc's ear.

Marc swore under his breath, caught between laughing and carrying this out further or the fact that Brendan had still yet to really let go of him. Brendan started a slow kiss then, taking up Marc's mouth in his lips. Marc pulled Brendan closer by his waist and let his arms drape around Brendan's hips.

Brendan was the one that led the way upstairs with Marc trying to stumble after him. Part of Marc was far too distracted to pay attention to stairs, while another part of him was trying to keep his nerves down.

Brendan start up their kissing again in the bedroom, and he was obviously taking the slow and cautious route with it until Marc relaxed more. Only then did Brendan go for the removal of their shirts and dragged Marc down onto the bed with him.

Marc let his hands wander a bit, feeling over Brendan's skin. He could feel the barely-there ridges and bumps between Brendan's tattooed skin and his plain skin. It made him slightly curious as to which ones were actually scars, but it wasn't the moment to ask.

He could feel Brendan grinding against him, but Brendan didn't push it any further on his own. Marc took some of the control for himself then, showing Brendan he was willing to go a little further as he undid both of their pants.

It was the first time Marc had ever seen another guy like this, and it was hard for him to get it into his head that it was happening. Brendan was hard of course, with his erection weeping against the flat of his stomach. Marc testily ran his hand up the exposed underside before trying to play how he knew he liked it.

He fisted the head at the top and rotated his hand around as he pumped, watching Brendan curve into the bed and let out a breathy moan. Brendan spared a hand and went searching for Marc's erection as well before taking it up in his hand.

Marc placed gentle kisses up and down Brendan's chest and neck as they both worked at each other. It was a long and tedious process—the more it went on, the more Marc just wanted to hit that peak; but using hands was a slow burn towards the desired end.

It still felt great, though. Each stroke was a little better than the one before until his muscles were tightening and he let out a strangled grunt as Brendan finally worked him to completion. He was a little nervous about having done it first, but he made sure Brendan was quickly behind him.

Brendan was a little more lively, rocking his hips and swearing quietly to himself until Marc had milked out the last drop. Brendan chuckled to himself and propped himself up on his elbows with a sloppy grin then. "Not bad, first-timer."

"I know how to use a hand," Marc grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

Brendan only laughed and gave him another kiss. "But we should also get to bed. I have a feeling someone will be waking us up at the ass-crack of dawn. Should I sleep in the guest room?"

"No, you're fine in here," Marc said. It had him a little embarrassed to think of Ariel coming in to wake them up in the morning, but then they would just wear clothes to bed. She used to crawl in with him and Whitney when she was younger, so what was the difference with Brendan? She already knew what was going on since Brendan first kissed him anyways.

They cleaned up and both put on bottoms before crawling into bed. Brendan stayed to one side and gave Marc a sheepish grin. "You're not offended if I don't sleep well while cuddling, are you?" he asked. "I like to roll freely without worrying about waking you up."

"Fine," Marc chuckled. He'd never really thought about it, but maybe he would sneak something in the night—an arm over Brendan or something.

Marc turned out the lights but still couldn't fall asleep. He was hyper aware of Brendan at the other side, and too riled up about where things were going. It wasn't a bad thing, he just didn't know where to go from there.

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